1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * About external Lisp packages
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
29 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
31 ** Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
32 backends. This requires the freetype and fontconfig libraries, and
33 supports local fonts (fonts installed on the machine where Emacs is
34 running). Additionally, the Xft library can be used for antialiasing
35 support, the otf library for complex text layout by OpenType fonts,
36 and the m17n library for text shaping. Fontconfig-like font names
37 (e.g. monospace-12) are accepted. The old font handling code can
38 be used by passing the configure option `--disable-font-backend'
39 (also available as a run-time option).
41 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
44 ** The Mac Carbon port is no longer supported.
45 Instead, use... [FIXME what?]
47 ** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
50 ** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
52 ** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
54 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
55 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
57 ** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
59 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
60 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
61 you need control over which C compiler is used.
63 ** The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
64 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
66 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
68 ** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
69 Start the server (M-x server-start). Then `emacsclient -t' creates a
70 tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can also use any
71 number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11 frame on
72 the current $DISPLAY or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set.
74 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
75 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
77 ** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
78 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
80 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
81 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs'. utf-8-emacs is backwards
82 compatible with the UTF-8 encoding of Unicode. The `emacs-mule'
83 coding system can still read and write data in the old internal encoding.
85 Since the internal encoding is also used by default for byte-compiled
86 files -- i.e. the normal coding system for byte-compiled Lisp files is
87 now utf-8-Emacs -- Lisp containing non-ASCII characters which is
88 compiled by Emacs 23 can't be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files
89 compiled by Emacs 20, 21, or 22 are loaded correctly as emacs-mule
90 (whether or not they contain multibyte characters), which makes loading
91 them somewhat slower than Emacs 23-compiled files. Thus it may be worth
92 recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be shared with older
95 ** There are assorted new coding systems/aliases -- see M-x list-coding-systems.
97 ** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
98 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
99 as tables of unicodes.
101 The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of each
102 dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
104 A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
105 characters for display.
107 ** There are new Chinese-GBK, Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali,
108 Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu, Sinhala, and TaiViet language
111 ** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
112 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line option
113 --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
114 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
115 for details about XEmbed.
117 ** Emacs comes with a new set of default icons.
118 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
119 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
121 ** Built-in functions (subr) can now have an interactive specification
122 that is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
123 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
125 ** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
126 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
128 ** split-window-preferred-function specifies whether display-buffer should
129 split windows vertically or horizontally.
131 ** Emacsclient has been extended to support opening a new terminal
132 frame. Its behavior has been changed to open a new Emacs frame by
133 default. Use the -c option to get the old behavior of opening files in
134 the currently selected Emacs frame.
136 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
138 ** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
140 ** If you set find-file-confirm-nonexistent-file to t, then C-x C-f
141 requires confirmation before opening a non-existent file.
143 ** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode enabled, Emacs uses a
144 Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server, rather than faking events
145 using the client program mev. This C level approach provides mouse
146 highlighting, and help echoing in the minibuffer.
148 ** Recentering changes
150 *** The new variable next-error-recenter specifies how next-error should
151 recenter the visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example,
152 0 for top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
154 *** New command recenter-top-bottom moves the current line to window
155 center, top and bottom on successive invokations.
157 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
159 ** The mode-line displays a `@' if the default-directory for the current buffer
160 is on a remote machine, or a hyphen otherwise.
162 ** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a minor mode,
163 in the same way as it already did for major modes.
165 ** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both vertically
168 ** The new command close-display-connection can be used to close a connection
169 to a remote display, e.g. because the display is about to become unreachable.
171 ** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
172 called with a prefix, and the default directory is a remote file name.
173 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
174 run processes remotely.
176 ** The new command `display-time-world' starts an updating time display
177 using several time zones, in a buffer.
179 ** The new function `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a
180 readable string of days, hours, etc.
182 ** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
183 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
185 ** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
187 ** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
188 Emacs initialization.
190 ** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode, unify-8859-on-decoding-mode
194 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
196 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
197 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
198 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
199 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
200 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
202 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
203 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
206 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
207 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
208 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
211 ** The new command-line option `--disable-font-backend' disables the
212 new font backend code at runtime. This option is not available if
213 Emacs was compiled without font-backend support.
215 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
217 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
220 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
221 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
225 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
230 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
233 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
236 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without activating it.
239 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
240 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
243 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
244 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
247 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
250 *** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
251 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty
254 ** Temporarily active regions
256 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
257 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
258 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
259 region, similar to mouse-selection.
261 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
262 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
263 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
264 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
265 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
269 ** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
270 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
271 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
273 ** C-z now invokes `suspend-frame', C-x C-c now invokes
274 `save-buffers-kill-terminal'.
276 ** New command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name matches a regexp.
278 ** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary selection
279 by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
281 ** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
282 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
283 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to bind
284 `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
286 ** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring
287 also updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank,
288 just as M-w would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
290 ** Minibuffer changes
292 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
294 *** Operations like C-x b and C-x C-f which use switch-to-buffer do not fail
295 any more when used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they
296 fallback on using pop-to-buffer which will use some other window.
298 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
299 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
300 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
301 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
302 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
303 searching minibuffer completion items.
305 *** In C-x d, if you type M-n you get the visited file name of the
308 *** In Dired, a list of commands for ! extracted from mailcap according to
309 file extensions are added to the default list accessible by M-n.
311 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
312 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
313 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last isearch
314 regexp, the last isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
316 *** isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
317 Reverse isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
318 history elements, and forward isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
319 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
320 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
321 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
322 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
326 *** `mode-line-emphasis' is used to highlight certain mode-line information;
327 for example while waiting for a VC command to finish.
331 *** The new function `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing
332 all the basic attributes of a given face.
335 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
337 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
338 [Maybe some information from doc/misc/gnus-coding.texi can be reused]
340 ** The package doc-view.el has been added. It supports viewing of PDF,
341 PostScript and DVI documents inside an Emacs buffer by converting the
342 document to a set of PNG images first. One can also search for a
343 regular expression in the document. The commentary of the file explains
346 ** The nXML package has been added. It is a new mode for editing XML
347 documents. nXML mode allows a schema to be associated with the XML
348 document being edited. nXML mode uses Relax NG as its schema
349 language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
351 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
352 any invalid parts of your document.
354 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
355 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
356 allowed by the schema in that context.
358 ** A new game called `bubbles' has been added. This is a version of
359 the "Same Game" with configurable difficulty level.
361 ** minibuffer-indicate-depth-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
363 ** Remember Mode (remember.el) is now included with Emacs. It is a
364 mode for quickly jotting down things to remember. Included with
365 remember.el is a backend that can save notes to a Diary file. Please
366 consult the Remember Manual for usage details.
368 ** D-Bus language bindings for Elisp are provided by the package
369 dbus.el and by extensions to the C modules of Emacs. D-Bus is an
370 inter-process communication mechanism for applications residing on the
371 same host, based on messages. See the manual for further details.
373 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
374 interfaces according the Zeroconf specification. It communicates with
375 Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems which
376 have installed this software.
378 ** EasyPG is now part of the Emacs distribution. It is an all-in-one
379 GnuPG interface which includes GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic
380 operations on regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg
381 files. See the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual for further details.
383 ** json.el is now included with Emacs. It is a library for parsing
384 and generating JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). JSON is a
385 lightweight data-interchange format.
387 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
388 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
389 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
391 ** The package linum.el is now included with Emacs. It it a new minor
392 mode to display line numbers for the current buffer.
394 ** proced.el has been added. It operates on processes like dired.
395 Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the current processes
396 (using ps(1)). You can use the normal Emacs commands to move around in
397 this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the processes listed.
400 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
402 ** A new `whitespace' package has been installed, and the pre-existing one
403 renamed to `old-whitespace'.
404 [FIXME someone explain why this is good, if it is...]
406 ** In Change Log mode, the new function `change-log-find-file', bound to
407 C-c C-f, finds the file associated with the current log entry.
409 ** abbrev was rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
410 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
412 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
413 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
414 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
415 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
416 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
417 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
418 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
419 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
420 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
421 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
424 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
425 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
426 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
427 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
428 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
429 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
431 ** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
432 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
436 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in isearch mode
437 runs `occur' with the current search string.
439 *** isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
440 When running isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
441 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
442 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
444 This is enabled if isearch-buffers-multi is non-nil.
446 *** The part of an isearch that failed to match is highlighted in `isearch-fail'
449 ** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
450 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see smerge-auto-refine.
454 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
455 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
456 diff-auto-refine. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
458 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
459 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
460 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
462 ** archive-mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
464 ** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
466 ** Compile and grep modes
468 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
469 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
470 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
472 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
473 the first error encountered during compilations.
475 ** In the `copyright' package, you can specify your copyright holders' names.
476 Only copyright lines with holders matching copyright-names-regexp will be
477 considered for update.
479 ** eldoc highlights the function argument under point
480 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
482 ** hide-ifdef-mode permits to shadow ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
483 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
486 ** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
487 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
490 *** The --members option is now the default.
492 Use --no-members if you want the old default behaviour of not tagging
493 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
497 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
499 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
501 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
503 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
504 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
505 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
508 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type V to toggle the annotation visibility.
510 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
513 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
515 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
516 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
519 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
520 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
521 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
523 ** log-edit now has a command bound to C-c C-d to show the diff for
526 ** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
528 ** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
529 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
530 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
531 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
535 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
537 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
538 `string', disabled by default.
540 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
541 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
543 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
548 *** New connection methods.
549 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
550 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
551 "tunnel" and "socks".
553 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
554 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
555 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
557 *** More default settings.
558 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
559 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
561 *** Connection information is cached.
562 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
563 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
564 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
566 *** Control of remote processes.
567 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
568 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
570 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
571 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
572 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
574 ** Calendar and diary
577 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
578 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
579 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
580 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
583 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
584 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
585 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
586 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
587 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
590 ** Miscellaneous programming mode changes
592 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
593 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
595 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
596 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
597 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
598 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
600 *** The variable `fortran-line-length' can change the fixed-form line-length.
602 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
603 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
606 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
610 *** The Gnus package has been updated
612 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
613 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
614 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
615 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
617 *** There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements.
619 See the file GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
623 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
624 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
625 on the corresponding remote system.
627 *** C-x C-q in dired-mode now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
628 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
631 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
633 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
635 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
636 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
638 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
639 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
641 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
642 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
645 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
648 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
649 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
650 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. Previously IPv6 was
651 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
652 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
655 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
656 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
657 Previously only X supported the busy cursor.
659 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
660 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
661 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
662 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
663 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
665 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
666 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
667 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
668 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
669 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
670 for the list of extra keys that are available.
672 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
674 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
675 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
678 ** The multibyteness of process filters is determined by the coding-system
679 used for decoding. The functions `process-filter-multibyte-p' and
680 `set-process-filter-multibyte' are obsolete.
682 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
683 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
684 that range have the same value.
686 ** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
688 ** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
691 ** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically. The
692 functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to enable
693 support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
696 ** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
698 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
699 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
700 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
701 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
702 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
703 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
704 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
706 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
707 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
709 ** The following features have been removed. They were used for
710 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
711 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
713 *** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
714 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
716 *** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
717 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
719 *** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
720 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
722 *** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
723 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
726 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
728 ** The variable `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the
729 key sequence invoking the current command was found by
732 ** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
733 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
734 the command arguments.
736 ** When deleting a terminal, run the special hook `delete-terminal-functions'.
738 ** The `read-shell-command' function does what its name says, with completion.
739 It uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
741 ** The `buffer-swap-text' function can swap the text between two buffers.
742 This can be useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
744 ** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
746 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
748 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
749 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
751 ** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents the
752 search and match primitives from changing the match data.
755 ** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
756 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
758 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
759 property, then `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from
760 the local value of the hook variable. This means it remains
761 even if you change major modes.
764 ** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
765 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
766 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
767 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
768 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
770 ** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a certain
771 variable as having been made within Custom.
773 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
776 ** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
777 an active region that they should operate on.
779 ** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode
780 is enabled and there is an active region. This is NOT the best function
781 to use to test whether a command should operate on the region instead
782 of the usual behavior -- for that, use `use-region-p'.
784 ** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
785 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
786 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
787 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
788 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
790 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
791 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
792 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
793 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
795 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
796 undefined functions. The new `check-declare' package verifies that such
797 statements are accurate (i.e. the functions are actually defined in
798 the specified files).
800 ** The new function `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
802 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
803 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
804 strings on the kill ring.
806 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
808 The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF with no gap.
809 Characters of code 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the same code points.
810 Characters of code 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit bytes.
812 Generic characters no longer exist.
814 In buffer and string, characters are represented by UTF-8 byte
815 sequence in a multibyte buffer/string.
817 The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may belong to
818 multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets unicode,
819 iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
821 *** The new function `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument
822 is a character. This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
824 *** The new function `max-char' returns the maximum character code
825 (currently it is #x3FFFFF).
827 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
829 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
830 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
832 *** The new function `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
834 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
835 priorities of charsets.
837 *** The new function `charset-priority-list' returns the list of
838 charsets ordered by priority.
840 *** The new function `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
842 *** The new function `unibyte-string' make a unibyte string from bytes.
844 *** The new function `define-char-code-property' defines a character
847 *** The new function `char-code-property-description' returns the
848 description string of a character code property.
850 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
851 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
852 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
853 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
854 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
857 *** The new variable `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a
858 char-table of functions to search for a word boundary.
860 *** The new variable `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
862 *** The new variable `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
864 *** The new variable `print-charset-text-property' controls how to
865 handle `charset' text property on printing a string.
867 *** The new variable `printable-chars' is a char-table defining if a
868 character is printable or not.
870 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
871 accepts a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
872 entries in that range of characters.
874 ** Code conversion changes
876 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
877 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
879 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
880 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
881 conversion should go.
883 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
884 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
887 *** The new function `with-coding-priority' executes the body part with
888 the specified coding system priority order.
890 *** The new function `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text
891 in the region is encodable by the specified coding systems.
893 *** The new function `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases
896 *** The new function `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of
897 charsets supported by a coding system.
899 *** The new function `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of
900 coding systems ordered by their priorities.
902 *** The new function `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of
905 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
907 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
908 It has three functionalities:
909 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
910 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
911 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
912 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
914 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
916 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
918 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
921 ** Changes related to the new font backend
923 Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource "FontBackend".
924 For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
926 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
928 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
929 available on your graphic device.
931 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
932 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
933 currently `x' and `xft'.
935 *** New function `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
937 *** New function `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
939 *** New function `font-get' returns a font property value.
941 *** New function `font-put' sets a font property value.
943 *** New function `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching
944 the given specification.
946 *** New function `list-families' returns a list of family names of
949 *** New function `font-font' returns a font-entity best matching with
950 the given specification.
952 *** New function `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font
953 (font-spec, font-entity, or font-object).
955 *** New function `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
957 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
958 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
961 ** Changes related to multiple tty support
963 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
964 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
966 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
968 *** The `window-system' variable has been made frame-local. The new
969 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
970 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
971 takes a frame argument.
973 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
974 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
976 *** The new function `make-frame-on-tty' allows you to create a new
977 frame on another tty device interactively.
979 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
980 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
982 *** New functions: `delete-tty', `suspend-tty', `resume-tty'.
984 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
985 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
987 *** New hooks: `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions'
988 are called after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed,
989 respectively. The functions are called with the terminal id of the frame
990 being suspended/resumed as a parameter.
992 *** New function: `environment'.
994 *** New variable: `local-function-key-map'.
995 This in addition to the global function-key-map variable that
996 already existed. The global variable is not used directly any more;
997 instead, the local-function-key-map is initialized so as to inherit from
1000 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1002 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1003 keyboard coding systems have been made terminal-local.
1005 *** In addition to the global function-key-map, Emacs has terminal-local
1006 local-function-key-map variables, and uses them instead of the
1007 global keymaps to set up translations and function key sequences
1008 relevant to a specific terminal device.
1011 ** You can now also pass the value of the `invisible' property to invisible-p
1012 to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible. Convenient when
1013 checking invisibility of text which has no buffer position
1014 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
1016 ** Non-breaking space now acts as whitespace.
1019 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1021 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1026 ((debug error) nil))
1028 ** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
1032 ** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1034 ** New function `window-full-width-p' returns t if a window is as wide
1037 ** The new function `split-string-and-unquote' does (what?)
1039 ** The new function `combine-and-quote-strings' does (what?)
1041 ** The new function `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated
1042 with a given image specification.
1045 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1046 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1049 ** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1050 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1051 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1052 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1053 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1055 ** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1056 returns its output as a list of lines.
1059 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1060 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1061 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1062 remote connection has been established already.
1064 ** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
1065 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
1068 ** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1069 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex interactive
1070 forms to subroutines.
1072 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
1074 ** The package isearch-multi.el has been added. It implements a new mode
1075 `isearch-buffers-minor-mode' that allows isearch to search through
1076 multiple buffers. In this mode a new variable
1077 `isearch-buffers-next-buffer-function' defines the function to call
1078 to get the next buffer to search in the series of multiple buffers.
1080 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
1083 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1084 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1086 GNU Emacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
1087 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1088 the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option)
1091 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1092 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1093 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1094 GNU General Public License for more details.
1096 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1097 along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the
1098 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
1099 Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
1104 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
1107 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2